As Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon returned to the post of Seoul Mayor after 10 years in the 4-7 by-election, attention is also being drawn to the reorganization of TBS traffic broadcasting.
In particular, attention is paid to the progress of Mr. Eo-Jun Kim, who runs the'News Factory of Eo-Jun Kim', which is surrounded by controversy over political bias.
Mayor Oh said in a media interview with TBS on the 28th of last month, "The purpose of establishing TBS is to provide transportation and daily life information." "I said.
However, as TBS became independent as a separate foundation last year, and the majority of the Seoul City Council holding budgetary powers belong to the Democratic Party, it is analyzed that Mayor Oh's immediate influence on TBS is limited.
TBS started out as a traffic broadcasting headquarters in Seoul in 1990, and in February of last year, it created a separate foundation,'Seoul Media Foundation, TBS', and became independent from Seoul.
However, more than 70% of the income was not completely independent financially by relying on Seoul city contributions.
For this reason, there have been many stories that if Mayor Oh takes office, he will exert influence on TBS with the Seoul city budget, which is supported by TBS, as a weapon.
This is because the mayor has the right to organize the budget for the contributor.
However, the city council has the authority to deliberate and decide on the budget drafted by the mayor.
Currently, 93% of the Seoul City Council belongs to the Democratic Party, so it is not easy to move the budget as Mayor Oh thought.
It is not easy to make TBS move through greetings.
This is because TBS became independent as a separate foundation and was no longer able to directly exercise personnel rights.
According to the'Seoul Metropolitan Media Foundation's Articles of Association', executives are required to be appointed by the mayor from among those recommended by the Executive Recommendation Committee.
The Executive Recommendation Committee recommends 2 mayors, 3 members of the Seoul City Council, and 2 members of the Foundation's Board of Directors.
The mayor cannot exercise full control.
Also, it is not easy to change current executives because they must go through a resolution of the board of directors to dismiss an executive.
Above all, if Mayor Oh, who has to seek re-election in the local election in June next year, intervenes in TBS personnel, an independent foundation, and sits as close associates during his tenure of only one year and three months, it may lead to controversy over'fairness', so he does not forcefully intervene There is a prospect that it will not be.
Eo-Jun Kim's news factory, which started in September 2016, is recording a high listening rate, ranking first in last year's Seoul metropolitan area radio listening rate survey.
However, since the inauguration of broadcasting, the controversy over political bias has not ceased, and has been sanctioned several times by the Korea Communications Standards Commission.
In particular, in this re-and-by-election election, the so-called'ecological bath controversy' continued to be reported, and reports of attacking Mayor Oh unilaterally led to a strong controversy over bias.
On this, the opposition party was pointed out that the program should be abolished. On the contrary, the ruling party raised voices that it should protect the news factory with Kim, the moderator.
However, as TBS is an independent foundation, Mayor Oh cannot immediately abolish the news factory and drop Mr. Kim.
In particular, the Broadcasting Act guarantees the freedom and independence of broadcasting, so if Mayor Oh directly intervenes in the program, it may lead to controversy over the infringement of broadcasting independence.
In addition, Mayor Oh insists that current affairs programs should not be conducted in accordance with the purpose of the establishment of TBS, but in the articles of association of TBS, the purpose of the establishment is'to ensure citizens' equal access to information through the media, expand citizens' participation in municipal administration, and promote culture and arts. It is also pointed out that it is unreasonable to abolish the current affairs program on the basis of this.
(Photo = Courtesy of TBS, Yonhap News)